We play it that you can also upgrade the Leaders you all ready have. The Generic Support List on page 80 doesn't have any restriction on who you can upgrade. A note of caution however, Level IV Leaders can be tremendously powerful so we usually don't allow anything more than Level III.

The Force compositions in the rules are guides not set in stone, so yes you could choose to upgrade the included Leaders if you wanted. However, like bandrsntch I usually limit Leaders to Status Level III. I reserve Level IV for very rare, scenario specific characters.

I've only ever used it to upgrade a support list leader. However. I played against an opponent that used it all on his normal leaders. They were so powerful, it made his force more like taking on an armoured division.. LOL!
Thanks for the help guys

This is slightly off-topic, but could you perhaps have a senior Lvl III leader who is unattached to a unit? Presumably as CinC he could just attach himself wherever needed, for example in places where normal commander has been wounded or killed, or to units that need to lose a lot of shock in a hurry?

This is slightly off-topic, but could you perhaps have a senior Lvl III leader who is unattached to a unit? Presumably as CinC he could just attach himself wherever needed, for example in places where normal commander has been wounded or killed, or to units that need to lose a lot of shock in a hurry?

Yes, there is absolutely no obligation to attach any Leader to units if you don't want to, though there are benefits to doing so. It can pay to keep a Force Commander aloof from the main action for the reasons you say.

Remember too that any Leader can command any unit, not just the one he deploys with so you can move them around as required. Of course if the unit has a higher Status Leader attached then a lower status Leader has fewer options.
You can impose restrictions on who can command what if you want as part of your scenario or force background.

Remember too that any Leader can command any unit, not just the one he deploys with so you can move them around as required.
...
You can impose restrictions on who can command what if you want as part of your scenario or force background.

Ah, I think I was reading too much into some of the Beast of War vids, where Rich is adamant about officers from Maryland not being able to activate troops from Carolina, or something of that ilk. Gave me the impression that an officer, say of a British Napoleonic Line battalion, would not be able to join and subsquently activate and/or remove shock from, say a British artillery piece.

Let me just think up a scenario:
A lieutenant (lvl II) of British Rifles, has his command shot to pieces, leaving just 3 figures, carrying five shock. Now a nearby British line unit of three groups loses its only commander to a sniper. It has relatively little shock and is still a going concern. Now, could our rifle lieutenant leave his essentially paralysed little rifle group and take over the large British line unit? Certainly sounds like something Bernard Cornwell would have Richard Sharpe do...

(I imagine the abandoned rifle group would still be able to move, using spare flags after the Tiffin card comes up, though its main goal would be to keep out of enemy range, so as to not take any more shock.)

Hi Contrarius,
Yes your Rifle Officer could do that if you wanted with the consequences you describe. He could even try to command both units but would struggle to activate them and remove Shock at the same time without the use of Command Cards given that he is only a level 2.

Rich's reported remarks about leading AWI units I would take as a bit of background colour which you could incorporate into your games, particularly amongst Militia units who often elected their own Leaders. A Continental officer might in contrast prove acceptable to both.

In my own FIW games I limit which regular Leaders can influence any Indian troops, usually restricting it to the Force Commander and/or other Leaders who might be familiar with the Indian ways like a Coureur de Bois or Ranger commander. Similarly Indian Leaders cannot influence or control Regulars or Militia.